Complete Works of F Marion Crawford

by F. Marion Crawford

  Princess Anatolie was gracious enough to give him her hand to kiss; he bent over it, and his lips touched a few of the cold precious stones in the rings that loaded her fingers. She had not changed in the year that had passed since he had seen her, except that her eyes looked smaller than ever and nearer together. Her hair might or might not be her own, for it was carefully crimped and arranged upon her forehead; it was not certain that her excellent teeth were false; there was about her an air of youth and vitality that was really surprising, and yet it was impossible not to feel that she might be altogether a marvellous sham, on the verge of dissolution.

  “This is most charming!” she said, in a voice that was not cracked, but rang false. “I expect my nephew, Guido, at any moment. He is your great friend, is he not? Yes, I never forget anything. This is my nephew Guido’s great friend,” she continued volubly, and turning to the elderly lady on her right, “Prince Lamberti.”

  “Don Lamberto Lamberti,” said Monsieur Leroy in a low voice, correcting her. But even this was not quite right.

  “I have the good fortune to know the Countess Fortiguerra,” said Lamberti, bowing, as he suddenly recognised her, but very much surprised that she should be there. “I have just received a very kind invitation from you,” he added, as she gave him her hand.

  “I hope you will come,” she said quietly. “I knew your mother very well. We were at the school of the Sacred Heart together.”

  Lamberti bent his head a little, in acknowledgment of the claim upon him possessed by one of his mother’s school friends.

  “I shall do my best to come,” he answered.

  He felt that the young girl was watching him, and he ventured to look at her, with a little movement, as if he wished to be introduced. Again he felt the absolute certainty of having met her before, somewhere, very long ago — so long ago that she could not have been born then, and he must have been a small boy. Therefore what he felt was absurd.

  “Cecilia,” said the Countess, speaking to the girl, “this is Signor Lamberto Lamberti.” “My daughter,” she explained, as he bowed, “Cecilia Palladio.”

  “Most charming!” cried the Princess, “the son and the daughter of two old friends.”

  “Touching,” echoed Monsieur Leroy. “Such a picture! There is true sentiment in it.”

  Lamberti did not hear, but Cecilia Palladio did, and a straight shadow, fine as a hair line, appeared for an instant, perpendicular between her brows, while she looked directly at the man before her. A moment later Lamberti was seated between her and her mother, and Monsieur Leroy had resumed the position he had left to welcome the newcomer, sitting on a very low cushioned stool almost at the Princess’s feet.

  In formal circumstances, a man who has been long in the army or navy can usually trust himself not to show astonishment or emotion, and after the first slight start of surprise, which only Monsieur Leroy had seen, Lamberti had behaved as if nothing out of the common way had happened to him. But he had felt as if he were in a dream, while healthily sure that he was awake; and now that he was more at ease, he began to examine the cause of his inward disturbance.

  It was not only out of the question to suppose that he had ever before now met Cecilia Palladio, but he was quite certain that he had never seen any one who was at all like her.

  If extinct types of men could be revived now and then, of those which the world once thought admirable and tried to copy, it would be interesting to see how many persons of taste would acknowledge any beauty in them. Cecilia Palladio had been eighteen years old early in the winter, and in the usual course of things would have made her appearance in society during the carnival season. The garden party for which her mother had now sent out invitations was to take the place of the dance which should have been given in January. Afterwards, when it was over, and everybody had seen her, some people said that she was perfectly beautiful, others declared that she was a freak of nature and would soon be hideous, but, meanwhile, was an interesting study; one young gentleman, addicted to art, said that her face belonged to the type seen in the Elgin marbles; a Sicilian lady said that her head was even more archaic than that, and resembled a fragment from the temples of Selinunte, preserved in the museum at Palermo; and the Russian ambassador, who was of unknown age, said that she was the perfect Psyche of Naples, brought to life, and that he wished he were Eros.

  In southern Europe what is called the Greek type of beauty is often seen, and does not surprise any one. Many people think it cold and uninteresting. It was a small something in the arch of the brows, it was a very slight upward turn of the point of the nose, it was the small irregularity of the broader and less curving upper lip that gave to Cecilia Palladio’s face the force and character that are so utterly wanting in the faces of the best Greek statues. The Greeks, by the time they had gained the perfect knowledge of the human body that produced the Hermes of Olympia, had made a conventional mask of the human face, and rarely ever tried to give it a little of the daring originality that stands out in the features of many a crudely archaic statue. The artist who made the Psyche attempted something of the kind, for the right side of the face differs from the left, as it generally does in living people. The right eyebrow is higher and more curved than the left one, which lends some archness to the expression, but its effect is destroyed by the tiresome perfection of the simpering mouth.

  Cecilia Palladio was not like a Greek statue, but she looked as if she had come alive from an age in which the individual ranked above the many as a model, and in which nothing accidentally unfit for life could survive and nothing degenerate had begun to be. With the same general proportion, there was less symmetry in her face than in those of modern beauties, and there was more light, more feeling, more understanding. She was very fair, but her eyes were not blue; it would have been hard to define their colour, and sometimes there seemed to be golden lights in them. While she was standing, Lamberti had seen that she was almost as tall as himself, and therefore taller than most women; and she was slender, and moved like a very perfectly proportioned young wild animal, continuously, but without haste, till each motion was completed in rest. Most men and women really move in a succession of very short movements, entirely interrupted at more or less perceptible intervals. If our sight were perfect we should see that people walk, for instance, by a series of jerks so rapid as to be like the vibrations of a humming-bird’s wings. Perhaps this is due to the unconscious exercise of the human will in every voluntary motion, for a man who moves in his sleep seems to move continuously like an animal, till he has changed his position and rests again.

  Lamberti made none of these reflections, and did not analyse the face he could not help watching whenever the chance of conversation allowed him to look at Cecilia without seeming to stare at her. He only tried to discover why her face was so familiar to him.

  “We have been in Paris all winter,” said her mother, in answer to some question of his.

  “They have been in Paris all winter!” cried the Princess. “Think what that means! The cold, the rain, the solitude! What in the world did you do with yourselves?”

  “Cecilia wished to continue her studies,” answered the Countess Fortiguerra.

  “What sort of things have you been learning, Mademoiselle?” asked Lamberti.

  “I followed a course of lectures on philosophy at the Sorbonne, and I read Nietzsche with a man who had known him,” answered the young lady, as naturally as if she had said that she had been taking lessons on the piano.

  A momentary silence followed, and everybody stared at the girl, except her mother, who smiled pleasantly and looked from one to the other with the expression which mothers of prodigies often assume, and which clearly says: “I did it. Is it not perfectly wonderful?”

  Then Monsieur Leroy laughed, in spite of himself.

  “Hush, Doudou!” cried the Princess. “You are very rude!”

  No one present chanced to know that she always called him Doudou when she was in a good humour. Cecilia Palla
dio turned her head quietly, fixed her eyes on him and laughed, deliberately, long, and very sweetly. Monsieur Leroy met her gaze for a moment, then looked away and moved uneasily on his low seat.

  “What are you laughing at?” he asked, in a tone of annoyance.

  “It seems so funny that you should be called Doudou — at your age,” answered Cecilia.

  “Really—” Monsieur Leroy looked at the Princess as if asking for protection. She laughed good-humouredly, somewhat to Lamberti’s surprise.

  “You are very direct with my friends, my dear,” she said to Cecilia, still smiling. The Countess Fortiguerra, not knowing exactly what to do, also smiled, but rather foolishly.

  “I am very sorry,” said Cecilia, with contrition, and looking down. “I really beg Monsieur Leroy’s pardon. I could not help it.”

  But she had been revenged, for she had made him ridiculous.

  “Not at all, not at all,” he answered, in a tone that did not promise forgiveness. Lamberti wondered what sort of man Palladio had been, since the girl did not at all resemble her mother, who had clearly been pretty and foolish in her youth, and had only lost her looks as she grew older. The obliteration of middle age had set in.

  There might have been some awkwardness, but it was dispelled by the appearance of Guido, who came in unannounced at that moment, glancing quickly at each of the group as he came forward, to see who was there.

  “At last!” exclaimed the Princess, with evident satisfaction. “How late you are, my dear,” she said as Guido ceremoniously kissed her hand.

  “I am very sorry,” he said. “I was out when your note came. But I should have come in any case.”

  “You know the Countess Fortiguerra, of course,” said the Princess.

  “Certainly,” answered Guido, who had not recognised the lady at all, and was glad to be told who she was, and that he knew her.

  Lamberti watched him closely, for he understood every shade of his friend’s expression and manner. Guido shook hands with a pleasant smile, and then glanced at Cecilia.

  “My nephew, Guido d’Este,” said the Princess, introducing him.

  Cecilia looked at him quietly, and bent her head in acknowledgment of the introduction.

  “My daughter,” murmured the Countess Fortiguerra, with satisfaction.

  “Mademoiselle Palladio and her mother have just come back from Paris,” explained Monsieur Leroy officiously, as Guido nodded to him.

  Guido caught the name, and was glad of the information it conveyed, and he sat down between the young girl and her mother. Lamberti was now almost sure that his friend was not especially struck by Cecilia’s face; but she looked at him with some interest, which was not at all to be wondered at, considering his looks, his romantic name, and his half-royal birth. For the first time Lamberti envied him a little, and was ashamed of it.

  Barely an hour earlier he had wished that he could make Guido more like himself, and now he wished that he were more like Guido.

  “The Countess has been kind enough to ask me to her garden party,” Guido said, looking at his aunt, for he instinctively connected the latter’s anxiety to see him with the invitation.

  So did Lamberti, and it flashed upon him that this meeting was the first step in an attempt to marry his friend to Cecilia Palladio. The girl was probably an heiress, and Guido’s aunt saw a possibility of recovering through her the money she had lost in speculations.

  This explanation did not occur to Guido, simply because he was bored and was already thinking of an excuse for getting away after staying as short a time as possible.

  “I hope you will come,” said Cecilia, rather unexpectedly.

  “Of course he will,” the Princess answered for him, in an encouraging tone.

  “The villa is really very pretty,” continued the young girl.

  “Let me see,” said Guido, who liked her voice as soon as she spoke, “the Villa Palladio — I do not quite remember where it is.”

  “It used to be the Villa Madama,” explained Monsieur Leroy. “I have always wondered who the ‘Madama’ was, after whom it was called. It seems such a foolish name.”

  The Princess looked displeased, and bit her lip a little.

  “I think,” said Guido, as if suggesting a possibility, rather than stating a fact, “that she was a daughter of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, who was Duchess of Parma.”

  “Of course, of course!” cried Monsieur Leroy, eagerly assenting, “I had forgotten!”

  “My daughter’s guardians bought it for her not long ago,” explained the Countess Fortiguerra, “with my approval, and we have of course changed the name.”

  “Naturally,” said Guido, gravely, but looking at Lamberti, who almost smiled under his red beard. “And you approved of the change, Mademoiselle,” Guido added, turning to Cecilia, and with an interrogation in his voice.

  “Not at all,” she answered, with sudden coldness. “It was Goldbirn—”

  “Yes,” said the Countess, weakly, “it was Baron Goldbirn who insisted upon it, in spite of us.”

  “Goldbirn — Goldbirn,” repeated the Princess vaguely. “The name has a familiar sound.”

  “Your Highness has a current account with them in Vienna,” observed Monsieur Leroy.

  “Yes, yes, certainly. Doudou acts as my secretary sometimes, you know.”

  The information seemed necessary, as Monsieur Leroy’s position had been far from clear.

  “Baron Goldbirn was associated with Cecilia’s father in some railways in South America,” said the Countess, “and is her principal guardian. He will always continue to manage her fortune for her, I hope.”

  Clearly, Cecilia was an heiress, and was to marry Guido d’Este as soon as the matter could be arranged. That was the Princess’s plan. Lamberti thought that it remained to be seen whether Guido would agree to the match.

  “Has Baron Goldbirn made many — improvements — in the Villa Madama?” enquired Guido, hesitating a little, perhaps intentionally.

  “Oh no!” Cecilia answered. “He lets me do as I please about such things.”

  “And what has been your pleasure?” asked Guido, with a beginning of interest, as well as for the sake of hearing her young voice, which contrasted pleasantly with her mother’s satisfied purring and the Princess’s disagreeable tone.

  “I got the best artist I could find to restore the whole place as nearly as possible to what it was meant to be. I am satisfied with the result. So is my mother,” she added, with an evident afterthought.

  “My daughter is very artistic,” the Countess explained.

  Cecilia looked at Guido, and a faint smile illuminated her face for a moment. Guido bent his head almost imperceptibly, as if to say that he knew what she meant, and it seemed to Lamberti that the two already understood each other. He rose to go, moved by an impulse he could not resist. Guido looked at him in surprise, for he had expected his friend to wait for him.

  “Must you go already?” asked the Princess, in a colourless tone that did not invite Lamberti to stay. “But I suppose you are very busy when you are in Rome. Good-bye.”

  As he took his leave, his eyes met Cecilia’s. It might have been only his imagination, after all, but he felt sure that her whole expression changed instantly to a look of deep and sincere understanding, even of profound sympathy.

  “I hope you will come to the villa,” she said gravely, and she seemed to wait for his answer.

  “Thank you. I shall be there.”

  There was a short silence, as Monsieur Leroy went with him to the door at the other end of the long room, but Cecilia did not watch him; she seemed to be interested in a large portrait that hung opposite the nearest window, and which was suddenly lighted up by the glow of the sunset. It represented a young king, standing on a step, in coronation robes, with a vast ermine mantle spreading behind him and to one side, and an uncomfortable-looking crown on his head; a sceptre lay on a highly polished table at his elbow, beside an open arch, through which the domes an
d spires of a city were visible. There was no particular reason why he should be standing there, apparently alone, and in a distinctly theatrical attitude, and the portrait was not a good picture; but Cecilia looked at it steadily till she heard the door shut, after Lamberti had gone out.

  “Your friend is not a very gay person,” observed the Princess. “Is he always so silent?”

  “Yes,” Guido answered. “He is not very talkative.”

  “Do you like silent people?” enquired Cecilia.

  “I like a woman who can talk, and a man who can hold his tongue,” replied Guido readily.

  Cecilia looked at him and smiled carelessly. The Princess rose slowly, but she was so short, and her arm-chair was so high, that she seemed to walk away from it without being any taller than when she had been sitting, rather than really to get up.

  “Shall we go into the garden?” she suggested. “It is not too cold. Doudou, my cloak!”

  Monsieur Leroy brought a pretty confusion of mouse-coloured silk and lace, disentangled it skilfully, and held it up behind the Princess’s shoulders. It looked like a big butterfly as he spread it in the air, and it had ribands that hung down to the floor.

  When she had put it on, the Princess led the way to a long window, which Leroy opened, and leaning lightly on the Countess Fortiguerra’s arm, she went out into the evening light. She evidently meant to give the young people a chance of talking together by themselves, for as soon as they were outside she sent Monsieur Leroy away.

  “My dear Doudou!” she cried, as if suddenly remembering something, “we have quite forgotten those invitations for to-morrow! Should you mind writing them now, so that they can be sent before dinner?”

  Monsieur Leroy disappeared with an alacrity which suggested that the plan had been arranged beforehand.

  “Take Mademoiselle Palladio round the garden, Guido,” said the Princess. “We will walk a little before the house till you come back. It is drier here.”